Hey there Flosstyle sewers 🙂
It’s Jess here to tell you a little about the new Whirl skirt pattern and my reintroduction to the sewing pattern world after – can you believe it – 2yrs!!!!
Wow that totally flew. They say time flies when you are having fun, but the last 2yrs have been anything but fun.
I’ll tell you what is lots of fun though, sewing up Whirl skirts 🙂
It all started with Flossy (my almost 6yr old) of course.
We were going through her wardrobe and removing the size 5 clothes to hand down to her little cousin who just loves handmade. It’s Winter here right now, so all I needed was enough tights and jumpers to see her through the next few months in a size 6, but she HAS to have skirts to go over her tights.
Off to the shops we went in search of skirts to wear over her tights in Winter and then through the coming Spring. Well, weren’t we disappointed by the available clothing to buy (again). Instead we ended up taking a detour to the fabric shop on the way home to pick out some skirt fabrics and then home to pick a pattern. On the way home she was very excited to be getting new mama-made skirts. Rambling about how they were going to have rainbow buttons and a pretty trim on the bottom and they were going to twirl! The girl knows what she likes…
I underestimated how much fabric a full circle skirt in a size 6 was going to require. The challenge was now set – to design her a twirly skirt that only needed 80cm or less of fabric.
Pencil in hand at the drafting table, I couldn’t get my mind to stop thinking about making this a really quick and easy sew for someone like Sonia (a favourite tester 😉 ) to make to sell.
Having hardly touched my sewing machines for way too long, I spent the next 3 days straight in the sewing room making skirts! I loved it…
The Wrap version was a little experiment with knit fabric that turned out just perfect for ballet!
As I was sewing, in my head I was mentally wording “Pin the two centers right sides together….”. A habit from many years of making patterns! In no time I had graded it right up to a size 14 in girls (which is roughly an 8 in ladies – so that I could make myself one too).
Excited by my new skirt design, the next question was how to go about publishing it? A quick photo to Gail and presto – we knew what to do.
This would be our first co-pattern. I sent her the pattern pieces and instructions and she formatted it into her new page layout. Two heads are better than one 🙂
I really, really, really enjoyed making this pattern. I’m so glad I did. It has re-ignited my love of sewing and being able to just focus on the pattern, but leave the responsibilities of running the business front to someone else is ideal for me right now. I just want to sew. I hope you enjoy sewing the Whirl skirt as much as I have <3
You can find all the info about the Whirl skirt pattern here on the website. There are loads of photos from the tester team to check out too. Find even more photos on the facebook page and facebook group
– Jess
(Founder & designer – Flosstyle Patterns)
